NEW SOCIAL JUSTICE COALITION JOINS OTHERS IN DEMANDING THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL INVEST IN PUBLIC EDUCATION IN CHICAGO

The R3 (Resist. Reimagine. Rebuild) Coalition, formed in November of 2016, includes 32 Chicago area grassroots, anti-racist, labor and immigration rights organizations. We came together to forge a shared agenda to fight for social justice in Chicago. Today we lend our support to the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) and others in making the demand that the City of Chicago make educating our children a priority. We have seen resources go to gentrification schemes and tax breaks for the wealthy, even under the guise of a more progressive agenda. This has to stop.

Today Chicago principals will learn what funds their schools will receive. At the same time, the governor continues to resist giving Chicago Public Schools (CPS) the resources it needs and deserves. What we know is that much more needs to be done to rebuild and reinvigorate our neighborhood schools, and that should be a top priority along with spending on public services for the families of those students. In the wake of systematic disinvestment over many years, our schools are hurting, which means our children are hurting. Our communities still have not fully recovered from the unprecedented closing of 50 schools by the Mayor. This action disproportionately impacted Black and Latinx students in working class neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Our children deserve better. We demand better for them.

Whatever issues we are focused on in our work, public education matters to all of us directly or indirectly. R3 pledges its support to our friends, neighbors and fellow activists on the frontlines of this struggle. We call on the Mayor and City Council to allocate necessary funds to our neighborhood schools and we stand solidly with our dedicated public school teachers who make a difference in the lives of this City’s young people every day.